Essex Bayou Habitat Restoration Engineering
Implementing Organization
State of Texas
Overview
DWH Project Funding
$372,000
Known Leveraged Funding
$0
Funding Organization
Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees (NRDA)
Funding Program
Natural Resource Damage Assessment NRDA
Details
Project Category
Environmental
Project Actions
Habitat Restoration and Enhancement
Targeted Resources
Wetlands/Marshes/Estuaries
Project Description
This project includes the engineering and design (E&D) necessary to restore and conserve coastal and nearshore habitats in Essex Bayou, Texas. The E&D is necessary to understand the factors that contribute to high salinities within Essex Bayou and the Slop Bowl Marsh system and develop solutions that will create a more stable estuarine system. At the initiation of the project, the Texas Implementation Group (TX TIG) chose to develop the project, which is detailed in the 2017 Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessment: Restoration of Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats; and Oysters into two phases. Phase I will support field and desktop investigations to determine how changing geological features affect hydrology such as freshwater inputs and tidal exchange rates, which in turn impacts marsh habitats. The field portion of the study includes collecting elevational survey data and deploying water level, salinity, and flow measuring recorders. Subsidence and marsh accretion rates will be determined with data collected from shallow cores and seismic sampling equipment to assess subsurface geology. Field data will be synchronized with additional LiDAR elevation imagery to construct a model that can be used to predict conditions in the marsh system beyond the data collection period, which can then be used to interpret future conditions incorporating projected changes in subsidence and sea level rise. These data will be summarized to identify how salinities can be stabilized to enhance conditions for wetland habitat, fisheries, and avian resources. The report from Phase I will be used by the Trustees to implement Phase II of the pr...click on "More Info" link below
Contact
Johanna Gregory(512) 389-8703
johanna.gregory@tpwd.texas.gov
Project Website
None
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